China’s War in Burma: Funding, Weapons, and Strategic Control

While China supplies the Burma junta with modern weapons, the resistance scrambles to fight with whatever equipment they can find or make. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.

The scam centers operating along Burma (Myanmar)’s borders are among the most significant revenue streams sustaining the junta and the ethnic armed organizations aligned with it, alongside mining and Chinese investment through the Belt and Road Initiative. All three have a direct Chinese dimension.

The scam compounds are run predominantly by Chinese criminal syndicates...